COLLEGE PARK, Md. (WUSA) -- For professor Phillip Resnik, the first general election Presidential debate of 2012 marked the culmination of more than one full year of hard work.

A computer scientist at the University of Maryland, professor Resnik developed a software program that was launched while President Obama and Mitt Romney dueled in Denver; an internet-based software program that instantly recorded the reactions of about five hundred students watching the debate in College Park and of perhaps another ten-thousand college students at schools all around the country.

"They are looking on their smart phone at a screen that has buttons that say agree, disagree, spin, dodge. You hear something you agree with, you tap agree," Resnik said.

Not surprisingly given the audience, President Obama got his biggest spikes of support when talking about reducing the cost of education, while Mr. Romney, after a fairly positive reception to his opening remarks on reviving the economy, did not fair nearly as well with the liberal-leaning college crowd as the debate went on.